AURA Astronomy

Illustrated graphic with the boot-shaped Rubin Observatory atop its site on Cerro Pachón beneath a sparkling night sky and the glowing band of the Milky Way stretching from lower left to upper right. Sprinkled throughout are many "Data alert!" popups, labeled with icons that represent supernovae, asteroids, hungry black holes, and more.

A 3-by-4 grid of grayscale astronomical images zoomed in on single objects. From left to right, the columns are labeled Template, New image, and difference. From top to bottom, the rows are labeled supernova, variable star, active galactic nucleus, and solar system object.

The largest spot-the-difference effort EVER has begun!🚨

On the night of Feb 24, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory officially released its first ~800,000 public alerts of detected changes in the night sky!🔍

A new era of discovery is here✨ 🔭🧪☄️

🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/first-a...

Asteroids, supernovae, and black holes...oh my! ☄️🌀

In a single image, Rubin will detect thousands of changes in the sky — from objects in our Solar System to exploding or pulsing stars and actively feeding supermassive black holes, as well as surprises we can't predict yet! 💥

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Space Telescope Science Institute Expanding the Frontiers of Space Astronomy. We are the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. We help humanit...

Subscribe to the Space Telescope Science Institute's YouTube channel to watch our collection of videos explaining fascinating concepts in astronomy! 📹 🔭 ⭐ #STScI #YouTube #astronomy

Stars exist across a wide range of masses, some more massive than the Sun and some less massive. If a star is less massive than roughly 8% of the Sun's mass, or 80 times the mass of Jupiter, its center is too cool to sustain hydrogen fusion. These stars... Discovering the Least-Massive Brown Dwarfs Known with the James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomers have used #NASAWebb—most powerful infrared telescope to date—to search for brown dwarfs at very low masses in a nearby nebula that contains newborn stars.

Join Dr. Kevin Luhman (Penn State) for a discussion on the surprising aspect of these new brown dwarfs TONIGHT at 7 p.m. ET. 🔭

A nebula appears like a transparent bubble with a white edge, inside which are two hemispheres of orange clouds being blown out from the center, split by a dark vertical lane, giving the overall appearance of a see-through skull with a brain inside, as seen from above. A few stars appear with eight points, and small background galaxies can be seen around and through the outer bubble.

Astronomers are losing their minds over #NASAWebb’s latest images of the very brainy-looking nebula PMR 1. Its distinctive form is the result of a dying star expelling its outer layers: https://news.stsci.edu/4tVQccE 🔭 🧪

📣Update: Observations at the Gemini Observatory during March-May 2026 may now be proposed as part of this month's Fast Turnaround (FT) Program. Deadline: 12:00 pm (NOON), Hawaiian Standard Time (HST), February 28. More info gemini.edu/observing/ph... #astronomy @aura-astronomy.bsky.social

YouTube video by Space Telescope Science Institute Webb: Transforming Our Understanding of Star Formation

In more than three years, #NASAWebb has “supercharged” what astronomers can learn about star formation—reshaping what we know with its sharp near- and mid-infrared observations.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. 🔭 🧪

JWST shakes up the hunt for earliest galaxy cluster The Universe formed stars, galaxies, and even galaxy clusters extremely early on in our cosmos. This new marvel is one more JWST surprise.

JWST shakes up the hunt for earliest galaxy cluster

A newly discovered galaxy protocluster by JWST doesn't break the cosmic record; it's only the 4th most distant one.

But it's the first with hot, X-ray emitting gas, and that means something.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #Xray

A symbiotic binary star. The structure resembles a cozy sweater with a red body, and blue wooly arms opened wide. The object is centered and take up about a third of the image horizontally. The background of space is black and dotted with distant stars and galaxies.

Appearing like a cosmic sweater, symbiotic binary star R Aquarii is seen in a combination of X-ray and visible light, including visible light from Hubble.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; ESO/VLT. 🔭

In the lower half is a narrow, horizontal cloud of gas and dust that stretches from edge to edge. It is largely pink at left and a mix of greens, oranges and reds at right. Two actively forming stars known as Herbig-Haro 797 are hidden on the right side, within the pinched waist of an orange section. A bright star with long diffraction spikes lies along the top right edge, and a few smaller stars are spread around. The background is covered in a thin blue haze.

Two stars in this #NASAWebb image are responsible for the horizontal jets. Known as Herbig-Haro 797, they are ingesting gas and dust—and periodically sending out two-sided jets. They’ll form over thousands of years.

Credit: ESA, NASA, CSA.

For those who are wondering... Who is AURA? 🔭🧪
@stsci.edu @noirlabastro.bsky.social

Google’s Former C.E.O. Wants to Build a Cosmic Search Engine

Kenneth Chang @kchang.bsky.social @ NYT reviews the new telescope 🔭 system being pursued under the patronage of the Schmidt Sciences team, with some closing thoughts by me . . . www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/s...

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Don't miss out on the most FUN swag and chocolate 😋 at #AAS247!
Visit the AURA Booth 301!

Scientists trained Hubble’s sharp vision on a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud and identified a new type of astronomical object—a failed galaxy that never produced stars. Nicknamed Cloud-9, it is considered a fossil from the early universe: https://news.stsci.edu/4bdj2Ov #AAS247

An illustration of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, its companion star, and a dense wake. The disk of a red-orange star is in the center. It is surrounded by a diffuse orange cloud representing its extended atmosphere. Below it, about one stellar diameter away, is a yellow dot representing a smaller companion star. From the companion, a dark red cloud wraps around in a counterclockwise direction. It begins very narrow and expands as it gets further from the companion, finally disappearing at the outer edge of the diffuse orange cloud around 10 o’clock. The words “artist’s concept” are at lower right.

The varying brightness of red supergiant Betelgeuse could be explained by Hubble’s latest reveal: The bright star in Orion’s shoulder has an elusive companion star orbiting it in its extended atmosphere, leaving a “wake” of dense gas: https://news.stsci.edu/4sunaQH #AAS247 🔭

AURA is a proud sponsor of #AAS247! Come visit us at booth 301 🔭

A field of galaxies on the black background of space. In the middle, stretching from left to right, is a collection of dozens of yellowish spiral and elliptical galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. Among them are distorted linear features, which mostly appear to follow invisible concentric circles curving around the center.

This image of MACS 0416 from #NASAWebb and Hubble shows two galaxy clusters in the process of combining. Their mass magnifies the light from more distant background galaxies, helping astronomers identify distant supernovas and even individual stars: bit.ly/4qSNy5T 🔭

An infrared image of the planet Jupiter, showing its atmospheric heat patterns in glowing shades of orange and gold against a black background. The image highlights the planet’s distinct horizontal bands: the darker, cooler cloud decks appear as deep brown or black stripes, while the warmer, deeper layers of the atmosphere glow brightly. A prominent dark oval in the southern hemisphere represents the Great Red Spot, which appears cool in this thermal view. Smaller swirling vortices are visible across the entire surface

This week’s image is of Jupiter! Since this image comes from Gemini North NIRI, which has a field of view of 22x22”, a mosaic of multiple images was used to obtain this stunning portrait peering into Jupiter’s cloud-forming region. Check out a few paper highlights in the thread! #Astronomy

Observatory domes on a mountain top at sunset with a clear sky and fading light.

Can we hear a little commotion for the AuxTel? 👏

Rubin's 1.2m Auxiliary Telescope measures how Earth’s atmosphere affects incoming light by monitoring well-studied stars.

Scientists use this information to make Rubin data better — with a facility this precise, every bit counts! 🔭🧪

The Most Jaw-Dropping Space Images of 2025, Revealed From an interstellar comet to breathtaking auroras and from brand-new rockets to iconic space telescopes, here are some of our favorite images from the cosmos in 2025

Lots of images from AURA managed facilities on this best space photos of 2025 list! Congratulations to @stsci.edu @noirlabastro.bsky.social @vrubinobs.bsky.social! 🔭 🧪

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Near the center is an object that resembles an edge-on view of a hamburger. There is a diagonal dark strip (the meat patty) of dust, running from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock, that obscures a central star. Curving away from either side of the dark strip are glowing white clouds (the buns) where dust is reflecting starlight. Bright blue finger-like wisps of material extend far above and below the dark center plane. A few dozen stars, some with four diffraction spikes, are scattered on the black background of space.

Hubble has imaged the largest planet-forming disk ever seen! At 400 billion miles wide, it is roughly 40 times the diameter of our solar system. The disk is unexpectedly chaotic and turbulent, offering new insights into how planetary systems form: https://bit.ly/477sQ9b 🔭 🧪

🔭🧪 List of image credits here: www.facebook.com/share/r/17U5...

Happy Holidays from AURA!

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark cloud of dense gas and dust located just below the belt of Orion on the sky. A visible light view shows a strong silhouette resembling the horse's head used for a knight in chess. Infrared light, however, reveals a more co... A Horse of a Different Color: The Gaseous Landscape of the Horsehead Nebula in Infrared

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark cloud of dense gas and dust located just below the belt of Orion. A visible light view shows a strong silhouette resembling the horse's head used for a knight in chess.

Infrared light, however, reveals a more complex scene, as shown in Hubble's 2013 image. 🔭 🧪

Four dust shells expand away from three central stars that appear as a single pinpoint of light. The innermost shell is smallest, like the size of a thumbprint, and brightest. It is yellow and forms a backward lowercase e. A line at 3 o’clock swoops to the bottom-left in an arc that ends at 8 o’clock. A second line at 9 o’clock dips down to start, but then goes straight up, angling around the top. The second shell, about the size of a fist, is orange and has looser arcs. One appears from 4 to 7 o’clock. A brighter orange triangle appears from 10 to 12 o’clock. Its outer edges overlap, forming a rough circle. The third shell extends almost to the edges and is semi-translucent red, with similar arcs and a darker red line that also forms a faint triangle at top left. The widest shell is faintest and at the edges. A semi-transparent blue appears across the scene. A larger foreground star with spikes is at bottom left, and more distant stars and galaxies are strewn across the black expanse of space.

NEWS: Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to refine the orbit of two Wolf-Rayet stars—named for the Egyptian god of chaos—to a lengthy 190 years and confirmed a third star carves their ongoing carbon dust ejections. 🔭 🧪 (1/6) 🧵

From @noirlabastro.bsky.social: And here it is… your favorite Image of the Week of 2025! This wonderful Gemini South image topped our charts on social media by capturing a meteor passing by like no other. #astronomy

📸: @GeminiObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek

This movie presents a visualization of the supernova remnant known as SNR 0509-67.5. The delicate sphere of gas, photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. The ... The Red Bubble: Supernova Remnant SNR 0509-67.5

Watch this visualization of the supernova remnant known as SNR 0509-67.5. The delicate sphere of gas, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. 🔭 🧪

STScI has three goals: 1) to excel in the science operations of NASA's current and future astrophysics missions; 2) to advance astronomical research, archives, and tools for scientific discovery; and 3) to make astronomical information accessible to all: https://www.stsci.edu/ 🔭 🧪

Poster advertising astronaut John Grunsfeld, who will be giving a public lecture at the Keck Observatory HQ in Waimea Hawaii on 13 November 2025. It shows several pictures of John in his astronaut gear, as well as a picture of the twin telescopes of the Keck Observatory. John worked on multiple servicing missions for the Hubble Space Telescope, and his talk will connect Hubble to the future Habitable Worlds Observatory being planning by NASA and the astronomy communities.

For my Hawai'i based friends - public talk at the @keckobservatory.bsky.social HQ in Waimea. John Grunsfeld, astronaut and Hubble repairman, will discuss "From the Hubble Space Telescope to the Habitable Worlds Observatory."